Saving a Women’s College from Closure

Sweet Briar College in rural Virginia has been educating women for 114 years, but last month the college’s board announced that the school will shut its doors at the end of this term, due to financial difficulties. The announcement was made abruptly, sending the campus community into a state of shock… and then activism.

A new alumnae group, Saving Sweet Briar, has raised more than $3 million in an attempt to thwart the closure. Tracy Stuart is a 1993 graduate of Sweet Briar and is on the board of the new nonprofit. She joins us on the podcast this week.

A get-tough attitude prevailed among educators in the 1980s and 1990s, but research shows that zero-tolerance policies don't make schools safer and lead to disproportionate discipline for students of color.